Prepare For Ol Donny Trump to Wriggle Out of This One

What do people expect the Epstein scandal to actually lead to?

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It’s hard to come up with the right word to describe the feeling engendered by the Jeffrey Epstein-related mess that Donald Trump finds himself in. On the one hand, there is a very entertaining kind of schadenfreude to be had from watching Trump flail around while MAGA loses its mind over the Epstein files. On the other hand, said flailing ultimately derives from Trump’s seeming connection to some of the most despicable forms of human behavior. “I’m digging this ‘wow Trump sure loved that sex trafficking pedophile’ scandal” doesn’t quite hit, you know?

I think that’s one reason I’ve found myself at a slight remove from the Trump-Epstein drama. But there’s another reason: I’m just not sure what people think is going to come from all of this.

That’s not to say that it doesn't matter. It matters greatly if the president of the United States was intimately involved with a child predator, and we should have every possible scrap of information we can about Trump’s dealings with Epstein. But where, practically speaking, are we imagining that any of this is leading? I could be wrong, but it feels like there are a lot of people letting themselves get drawn into yet another episode of “I’d like to see ol Donny Trump wriggle his way out of this jam!”

Let me explain why.